The Voices
by nerdygirl153
Summary: The history of the Veil of Death.


**Disclaimer**: I am not Joanne Kathleen Rowling. My name is nowhere near as fabulous and rich.

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**The Voices**

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The veil rippled softly at the mouth of the cave. It had been alone; nobody had tried to pass since Merlin himself had created it to protect the entry to his final resting place. Nobody except a couple squirrels looking for nuts, a bear looking for a cave, and a dove paying no attention to its path.

Nobody until Durwin Luxton came looking for Merlin.

Luxton had had no particular attraction to the veil, barely even noticed it was there. Until he heard the whispering. He heard the voice of his childhood friend, a Muggle who had been killed by a werewolf. He had been looking for the cave, looking for Merlin, but he found his friend. In his eagerness to find him, he reached out – but when he touched it, it only rippled softly. Suddenly, it remembered its job and pulled Luxton away with nothing but a shocked look on his face.

His partner, an Auror, had just walked around the bend when he saw Luxton disappear. He heard Luxton whisper, and it made him want to come nearer. There were other voices, too, but Luxton's was particularly strong. What was on the other side of that veil? He took a step forward, reached out – the whispers escalated as he did – but hesitantly took his hand back and apparated back to the Ministry to report the loss of his partner and get backup.

The wizards came - this was long before the days in which witches could work for the Ministry, after all - and carefully removed the front of the cave, veil and all. They looked everywhere for Luxton, but found nothing more than a few dusty scrolls.

They knew better than to touch the veil again, with the exception of a single newbie. He was talking and didn't notice where he was going. He turned around and saw the veil for a split second, his eyes widening as the whispers grew louder and louder unbearably loud until, with a sigh, his body passed through and he joined the whisperers.

They didn't know what to do with the veil, so they put it in the newly-established Department of Mysteries. Hopefully, nobody would find it.

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The handsome young man came to the veil, touched the rock. The veil shivered at his touch, but warmed as it realized that these were the hands of a killer. As the man left, his eyes glinted just a little more red.

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A few years later, a man sees this strange red-eyed man at the window. "Lily, take Harry and go!" The veil shuddered, remembering the handsome young man and waiting – waiting – for his voice to join. First the messy-haired man with the glasses. Then his green-eyed wife. But then – the handsome man did not join, nor did the child with the new lightning bolt scar.

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The veil waits and waits. It absorbs nothing more than a moth, and gains fewer new whisperers.

The veil feels the return of the handsome young man. It feels each day that man, now much older and in a different body, gets older, gets that much closer to dying. He's no longer handsome, with his fully red eyes and skeletal appearance. Only a couple years left until he is added to the whisperers.

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The green-eyed, messy-haired boy walks up to the veil. The whispering gets louder. The blonde-haired girl next to him steps forwards as well, transfixed. His mother, her mother, his father - the veil twists their voices, calling to them. Just one more step – but then the brown-haired girl, the one who hears nobody she can recognize, calls them back.

But the long-haired man, he falls. With a look of shock on his face, he falls backwards through the veil. Finally. The veil has not had a victim in years. With a sigh, it pulls the long-haired man away. It sees the green-eyed boy, hears the keening cries echoing in the hall. It sees the scarred man hold him back, wanting to run through as well. It sees the red-eyed man return, sees the old man battle him. It is waiting.

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Voices join the whisperers. They are a cacophony of sound, tearing at every Unspeakable's heart. Not one of them goes unscathed. It hungers for sound, hungers for that final voice it so desires.

The red-eyed man is foolish. The veil feels him die, piece by piece. But there are still more left. The red-eyed one tries to kill the green-eyed boy, but only dies a little more.

Finally. Complete.

The veil vanishes with the addition of the red-eyed man's torn, twisted voice.

It leaves nothing but an archway.

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AN: please review! i like it when i get reviews!


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